SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

This is, by far and away, my favourite Dream Theater album, and one of my favourite albums of all time. "The Glass Prison" features some of the greatest progressive metal writing this side of heavy metal. The riffs are fantastic and nigh perfect. This song is one of Dream Theater's best and is criminally underrated--this is on par with "A Change of Seasons" and "Metropolis" in terms of songwriting. "Blind Faith" is a solid piece, the centrepiece of which is Rudess' grand piano solo, segueing directly into an even more impressive synth solo. "Misunderstood" is another wonderful piece of heavy metal writing, though some dislike the 'noise' that dominates the end of the track. That doesn't reflect badly on the rest of the piece--the light, ambient, textured sections blend well with the screaming, industrial-influenced sections. "The Great Debate" is another fantastic and under-recognized Dream Theater track. The 7/8 buildup that comprises the intro is amazing, driven mostly by Portnoy's creative and stylistically diverse drumming. The title track is also an example of perfection in the album-song genre. There is never a dull or uninteresting moment in this 42 minute piece, which starts out in perfect melodic heavy metal ("About to Crash"), detours through math thrash ("The Test that Stumped Them All"), takes a leaf from Peter Gabriel's soft folk rock ("Solitary Shell") and blasts anthemic arena rock riffs ("About to Crash [Reprise]") before finally ending with an ever-so-slightly cliche but still amazing vocal performance from LaBrie on the finale. There is nothing worth finding fault with on this album, in my estimation. Though this is not Dream Theater's 'best' album, this is a perfect album in its own right.